


Basic Overview of the Drell Language

by katiebour



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen, Languages and Linguistics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 09:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/878266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katiebour/pseuds/katiebour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The drell are the only characters in Mass Effect of which I'm aware that have even a little discussion of their language.  We don't have enough for a dictionary, but there are some conclusions we could draw about the structure of the language and the sounds that exist in their lexicon.  All of my assumptions about the Drell language are completely non-canon- the material used, however, is all canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I have no idea what to call this language. Drellian? Rakhanese? Take your pick, hehe. But I think before I start that it's important to talk about translators, and how they could work.

The interesting thing in Mass Effect is that translators appear to be working in real-time, which either means that they have really badass prediction software (and if you look at the predictive text for cell phones, you can see where there's enormous potential for misunderstandings and diplomatic incidents if that's the case) or they are translating word-for-word with little to no delay. How would this work?

I would suspect that each person would calibrate (hehehehehe) their own translator, speaking a pre-programmed set of syllables into it to be recorded. The translator would then use these sounds to produce translated speech in that person's own voice. In the case of species that don't normally produce verbal output, a default voice would be used (i.e. the hanar, who normally communicate via some sort of skin-glowy morse code into the infared spectrum, or volus, who are so stuck in their suits that you'd never hear their voice anyway.) But for humans, turians, drell, asari, etc, individuals have different voices that are discernible even to us, the players, therefore logic would dictate that each person's "translation" is produced in their own voice.

Ok, so what does this mean for the drell language?

This means that when Thane, Kolyat, Feron, and Quoyle are speaking, their words are being translated, but their sentence structure remains unchanged. The translators aren't pausing to catch entire phrases, they're processing on the go. So the order of the parts of speech remains the same in both the original and the translated version. I think this is why Thane sounds a bit old-fashioned in terms of the way he speaks, i.e. "few are privileged to meet another" kind of syntax. That's a reflection of how his language is formed.

The best and most consistent source, I find, for sentence structure are the prayers to Kalahira and Amonkira, which are also the least likely to have changed under hanar influence. It's possible that they are more formal than younger Drell speech a la Kolyat, but they fit well with Thane. I will reiterate them here:

 **Prayer to Kalahira:**  
Kalahira, mistress of inscrutable depths,  
I ask forgiveness.  
Kalahira, whose waves wear down stone and sand,  
Kalahira, wash the sins from this one,  
and set him on the distant shore of the infinite spirit.

Kalahira, this one's heart is pure, but beset by wickedness and contention.  
Guide this one to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves, the hungry never starves.  
(Renegade: Guide him to where all hunters return, where all storms become still, where all stars show the path.)  
Guide this one, Kalahira, and he/she will be a companion to you  
(Renegade: Guide this one, Kalahira, and he will be a companion to you)  
as he/she was to me.  
(Renegade: As he was a father to me.)

 **Prayer to Amonkira:**  
Amonkira, Lord of Hunters,  
Grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true, and my feet swift.  
And should the worst come to pass, grant me forgiveness.

 **Syntax conclusions:**  
inscrutable depths  
distant shore  
infinite spirit  
Adjective-noun/pl. noun

hands be steady  
aim be true  
feet swift  
single/pl noun-verb-adjective

I ask forgiveness.  
Subject-verb-object

Kalahira, wash the sins from this one  
Subject-verb-direct object-indirect object

It seems pretty clear that the language is SVO in structure, with some interplay of adjective and noun. Thane's sentence about thugs in "custom armor" implies adjective-first noun-second construction in regular speech, pretty standard as with English, and I suspect the structure of the prayers is more formal/ceremonial.

So jumping over to the actual in-language words/phrases (of which we have only two) we have:  
drala'fa- "the ignored ones", adjective + plural noun  
tu'fira- "lost in another" adjective + prepositional phrase/object

Simpler words and parts of speech/pronouns tend to be the shortest utterances in a language, i.e. the most basic building blocks for communication. Words also have patterns, such as adjectives in English ending in -ic like "terrific" or "horrific." Therefore I find the following likely:

Adjectives (more complex concepts, multi-syllabic, end in -a):  
Drala- ignored/forgotten  
Fira- lost

Nouns:  
fa- people/ones (plural)  
tu-other/person (singular)

I suspect that word order plays a role in meaning (similar to Latin): Fira'tu might mean "lost other," i.e. adjective-subject, whereas tu'fira means "lost in other," or adjective-object. Similarly, a reversal of "drala'fa" (the ignored ones) might result in "fa'drala," (the ones who are ignoring [something].)

To summarize, we have the following possible combinations and word order permutations:  
Drala'fa- ignored people (pl.)  
Fa'drala- people who are ignoring [something] (pl.)

Tu'fira- lost in other/lost in a person (sing.)  
Fira'tu- lost other/lost person (sing.)

Drala'tu- ignored other/ignored person (sing.)  
Tu'drala- person who is ignoring [something] (sing.)

Fa'fira- lost in a crowd/lost in people (pl.)  
Fira'fa- people who are lost/lost people (pl.)

Anyway, that's just some speculation on how the language might work. :)

The other thing we can mine from both the phrases and the names are what sounds exist in the language. Here is the list of all words and names of all known drell:

Drala'fa (Dra La Fa)  
Tu'fira (Tu Fi Ra)

Thane (The I -n)  
Kolyat (Ko -l Ya -t)  
Krios (Ku -Ri O -s)  
Feron (Fe Ro -n)  
Irikah (I Ri Ka)  
Quoyle (Ku O Yu -l)

Kalahira (Ka La Hi Ra)  
Amonkira (A Mo -n Ki Ra)  
Arashu (A Ra Shu)  
Siha (Si Ha)  
Rakhana (Ra -k Ha Na)  
Sere (Se Re)  
Drell (Dre-l) 

If we assume that the drell language is based on syllables with some final consonants (which it seems to be to me) then we can infer the existence of the following phonetic alphabet, laid out similarly to Japanese hiragana and katakana:

Vowels:  
A, I, O

K sounds:  
Ka, Ki, Ku, Ko

S sounds:  
Si, Se

T sounds:  
Tu

M sounds:  
Mo

N sounds:  
Na

H sounds:  
Ha, Hi

F sounds:  
Fa, Fi, Fe

R sounds:  
Ra, Ri, Re, Ro

L sounds:  
La

Y sounds:  
Ya, Yu

Composite sounds (Two consonants and a vowel):  
The, Dra, Dre, Shu

Final consonants:  
-n, -l, -t -k -s

If we were to lay it out in a table, and infer the presence of other existing consonant-vowel combinations, it looks like this:

A I U E O  
Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko  
Sa Si Su Se So  
Sha Shi Shu She Sho  
Ta Ti Tu Te To  
Tha Thi Thu The Tho  
Dra Dri Dru Dre Dro  
Ma Mi Mu Me Mo  
Na Ni Nu Ne No  
Ha Hi Hu He Ho  
Fa Fi Fu Fe Fo  
Ra Ri Ru Re Ro  
La Li Lu Le Lo  
Ya Yi Yu Ye Yo

-n -l -t -k -s

Do other sounds exist? Quite possibly. Our sample size is so damn small it's impossible to tell. But even going by the above table, which is an inference from known canon that just about doubles the syllabic pool, there are some interesting omissions:

No G-sounds, or B- or P- sounds. All words we know end either in final consonants or in -a or -u sounds. 

Shepard's name in drell might best be approximated by something like:

She-ha-re -t or She-ha-dra.

Garrus might be:

Ke-ro-s.

Miranda could be:

Mi-ra-n-dra.

And so on- the possibilities of a drell accent are interesting to consider for fic purposes, in case of a translator breaking, etc.

We don't really have enough information to guess at more than very basic stuff, but it's fun to think about.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Possible Name Pronunciations:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So here's a list of how Thane and company might pronounce things in their native language, based on the previous chapter's limited set of sounds:

Jane: "She-i-n"  
John "Sha-n"  
Shepard "She-ha-dra" or "She-ha-re-t" or "She-ma-dra" or "She-ma-re-t"  
Miranda "Mi-ra-n-dra" or "Mi-ra-n-ta"  
Jacob "She-ka-t" or "She-ka-m"  
Jack "Sha-k"  
Garrus "Ke-ra-s" or "Ke-ro-s"  
Samara Samara (all sounds exist)  
Liara Liara (all sounds exist)  
Mordin "Ma-ra-dri-n" or "Ma-dri-n" (I suspect the combination of -rd and -rt might be hard for drell)  
EDI "I-Ti"  
Legion "Le-sha-n"  
Joker "Sho-ku-ra"  
Thomas Hobbes "Ta-Ma-S Ha-Ma-S" (no b or p sounds, closest they get is an 'm' in terms of mouth shape!)  
Kahje "Ka-she"  
Chakwas "Sha-k-ra-s"  
Bailey "Me-i-li"  
Glyph "Ku-ri-fa"


End file.
